Meet Terps tight end commit Andrew Gray

Jonas Shaffer, The Baltimore Sun

With national signing day only days away, preview the Terps' class of 2014 with a handy, commit-by-commit guide. Prospect profiles will run all the way through Wednesday (Feb. 5), when players can officially sign a national letter of intent. (SEE THEM ALL HERE.)

Breakdown: You can see Maryland’s awareness of how Big Ten football games are played and won with this year’s rock-solid assemblage of offensive linemen. You can also see it in its lone tight end commitment. Gray had 30 catches in his last two years of high school football — 12 as a junior, 18 as a senior. So, no, Gray is not going to Maryland because he ran roughshod over Northeast Ohio defenses. He is going to Maryland because he helped his run-heavy high school team do that. “I told him, 'Do you know why you have this career opportunity right now?’” Chardon coach Mitch Hewitt told The News-Herald in May. “‘Because you can block.’” He was called his area’s “best blocking TE,” and you need only look at his basketball abilities for confirmation of his hustle and hands. He had 32 points earlier this season in a blowout win, even hitting a 3-pointer. In football, Gray will not be counted on to score that much, or maybe at all. But the Terps seem to know they can at least trust him to block.